Charles Ian Chun: What went wrong? -- Blog -- 4 December 2004 - Korea Association of Hakwon and the Foreign Language Educational Association

4 December 2004

Korea Association of Hakwon and the Foreign Language Educational Association
present
2004 Seminar for Foreign Language Institute Teachers in Seoul, Korea
The Korea Teachers Pension Building

I feel like I'm back at ISU. I'm surrounded by more young-ish, white, English speakers than I have been in more than a year. The government requires that every English academy send a foreign teacher to this seminar. Here we will listen to lectures about the foreigners' experience in Korea, cultural misperceptions, and good teaching (as these people see it) in general. The seminar handed out packets containing the prepared speeches of several of the speakers, presumably because they are not that comfortable with their pronunciation. I have found the practice of handing out your papers ahead of time to be speaker murder, whether it is in a university classroom or at a seminar such as this one. One of the central reasons is the audience's tendency (perhaps, rightfully so) to scutinize a speech more than they would have merely listening to it.

At this seminar, the foreign teachers around me felt extremely clever pointing out awkward phrasing and fortune cookie-styled philosophical musings found in the text (e.g. "children are like kites"). "Who says that?! Who says that?!" was probably the most obnoxious remark coming from some guy behind me who sounds like he spends all of his free time in nightclubs. I have to admit that I was particularly amused by one speaker Sung Jung-Sook's concluding words of inspiration: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." Ms. Sung, president of SeoJune Language School, was later informed of her faux paus and apologized to the audience.

The most interesting and entertaining speaker was an American teacher named Shane M. Peterson. For no particular reason, I didn't bother to take his picture. He did a great job of relating experiences and advice that resonated with the audience. I was a little annoyed, however, when he repeated the incredibly tired belief that Korean students view their foreign ("white") teachers as "gods."

The main attraction was Professor Min Byeong-chul of Chungang University. He is famous for writing Ugly Koreans and Ugly Americans. His talk was on why we should buy his book.

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